New Stages power meters available in UK

Dual-sided option goes on sale for the first time alongside new left and right-sided units

Stages Power LR - 3.jpg

Three new Stages Power products will be available in the UK for the first time this month: the Stages Power LR dual-sided power meter (LR as in left and right, obviously), the Stages Power R driveside power meter and the updated Stages Power L non-driveside system.

Stages Power LR

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Stages Power LR is the dual-sided power meter that has been used by members of Team Sky over the past couple of years, officially announced by Stages last August.

Like other Stages power meters, Power LR is crank based, the difference is that Stages’ existing products measure only your left leg (non-driveside) and double that to give a total power figure, effectively assuming that each of your legs contributes the same amount of power.

Stages says that it remains committed to single-sided power meters and doesn’t believe that a dual-sided option is necessary for everyone, although it can be useful for those recovering from injury, for example.

The Stages Power LR is said to add just 35g to the weight of the chainset. The Shimano Dura-Ace 9100 version is available for £1,199 while the Shimano Ultegra R8000 model is £949.

Stages Power R

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Stages Power R is a right-leg only (driveside) power meter, logically enough. What’s the point when Stages left-leg power meters have been available for years? It’s because the left-leg models aren’t compatible with some frames with brakes mounted to the underside of the chainstays.

Stages Power R - 9.jpg

The Stages Power R can be paired with existing Stages Power Gen 2 left leg only meters and the new Power L (below) to give a dual-sided system.

Stages Power R is available in a Shimano Dura-Ace 9100 model for £749 and in a Ultegra R8000 version for £649.

Stages Power L

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Completing the set, Stages Power L is the redesigned left-sided model. It’s available in three flavours, all of them Shimano: Dura-Ace 9100 (£649), Ultegra 8000 (£549) and 105 (£449).

Previous generation left-leg power meters are still available, the cheapest option being Shimano 105 at £399.

As mentioned, you can use the Stages Power L alongside the Power R (above), so it’s possible to buy one or the other and then add the second at a later date to create a dual-sided system.

An LED indicator has been added to the Power L to show that the unit is in operation, with Stages promising more features to follow.

All three of the power meters covered here feature higher resolution strain gauges than Stages used previously, with the level of accuracy now said to be +/-1.5% (it was +/-2% before). The accelerometer now used has a faster sampling rate than previously too.

Mat has worked for loads of bike magazines over 20+ years, and been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. He's been road.cc technical editor for eight years, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a past winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer.